-.-.-Chapter 21-.-.-

Once I was finished with my sandwiches I stood up from the table straightening out my shirt before nodding, "Right, as much as a disappointment as things have been so far there's one factor of the magical world that I know can't disappoint me," I said with a grin, "the magic."

My dad chuckled, "going to get to practicing aye?"

I nodded, "Yep, I want to see if it's as easy as the movies make it out to be, if it is then I'll be going dungeon diving again and this time I'll actually make some progress" I said, really looking forward to it.

"But how are you going to practice?" my mum asked as she collected my plate from the table, "with you being underage.." she began to say before she stooped as a look came across her as she realized what I was intending, "Pokemon Home."

I nodded, "Yep, as it's a separate dimension entirely, it should prevent whatever means the ministry is using to detect the use of underage magic, whether that's an enchantment on my wand or more than likely wide scale enchantments over the entire United Kingdom" I explained, having already thought this through, Pokemon Home would be the optimal place for me to train both at home and at hogwarts as it provided me complete privacy.

My dad nodded in approval glancing at my mum, before asking, "Mind if we tag along, after seeing Diagon alley I want to see just what magic is capable of first hand." as my mum nodded her agreement.

I shrugged, "Sure thing, I don't mind, just let me run up and grab a couple of my books," I said as I turned and headed up to my bedroom, while I was confident I remembered a number of the spells from the movies and books, wand movements and such were things that slipped my mind, so I wanted them more for reference so that I could correct myself.

A couple of minutes later after returning with my wand and the two books I would need, The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble being the two books I had deemed the most appropriate as they would no doubt have the most spells in them that I could use.

So with books in hand and my parents hands on my shoulders I took all three of us into Pokemon Home, appearing once more atop the hill looking out over everything.

"Second time, still as amazing as ever," my mum commented as we began to make our way down the hill.

My dad nodded, "So lad, where do you want to practice?" he asked as they followed me.

I gestured ahead of us with a nod, "Down by the lake side would be the best option I think," I said, "that way I can fire any spells off over the water with little chance of doing any damage."

"Smart thinking," My dad mused, "perhaps we should see about getting you some targets and setting up a practice range."

I nodded, "It could help, but it wouldn't exactly be very large, from what I know most common spells that the average witch or wizard can fire off are limited in range to about fifty or sixty feet, after that they just sort of fizzle out" I explained, recalling from my memories of the movies only and handful of times when I saw spells go further, the image of Dumbledore in the cave full of inferi came to mind, conjuring up a veritable fire storm with him at the center.

My dad hummed at my words before nodding, "a practice range would still help, just means less effort to put one together then if it doesn't have to be that big."

I nodded conceding that he had a point, it was something that worried me mostly, my aim. If some spells had to be precise for certain effects, like the disarming charm, then I'd definitely have to practice to get it down right, especially if the wand movements for it messed up where I was pointing my wand.

Soon enough we'd made it down to the lake side and I set both my books onto a large rock nearby, opening the Standard Book of Spells first I began to leaf through it looking for something that I could see being used offensively. Quickly finding two that I recognised.

The severing charm, Diffindo, and the fire making charm, Incendio.

Marking both of the pages I then went and started looking through The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection to see what it had to offer, not remembering anything from it mentioned in the books or movies, but was pleasantly surprised when I found one spell I recognised and another as well that I hadn't remembered the incantation for.

The Red sparks spell, Vermillious, and the knockback jinx, Flipendo.

"Anything good lad?" my dad asked with a knowing look, having seen my smile at finding what I was looking for.

"Four good things actually, more than what I was hoping for from first year text books," I said with a chuckle as I turned back to the standard book of spells, deciding they had the most kick and should be prioritized first.

"What one are you going to practice first?" my mum asked me as she laid out a blanket that she had brought along to sit down on to watch.

"The severing charm," I said as I looked over the book, taking note of the illustrated wand movements, sort of a half finished w wave, "the book says it's primarily used to cut things like parchment and cloth, but it can be used offensively as well."

My dad frowned hearing that, "and they're teaching this sort of thing out of a first year spell book?" he asked, clear concern in his voice.

I shrugged as I memorized the wand movement and the noted enunciation memo in the book to focus on the "IN" in Diff-IN-do, when casting. 

"You saw how they dress in Diagon Alley, they don't exactly have much common sense that mundane people do. Plus things like cuts, burns, broken bones and the like that would be considered serious injuries for us can be fixed with a simple spell or a potion by them." I mused before pausing to think, "There was also a theory going around in my last life that witches and wizards are "Built differently" from regular people, allowing us to take much more damage, due to how they survived things that should have killed normal people."

"Like?" my dad asked curiously.

I hummed for a second thinking as I practiced the wand movements for the spell without saying the incantation, "well the first thing that comes to mind would be Sirius Black surviving an exploding sewer main that killed twelve other people, caused by Peter Pettigrew, on October thirty first, nineteen eighty one."

"I think I remember hearing about that on the news back then," my mum spoke up with a shocked look, "that was caused by this Pettigrew fellow?"

I nodded as I kept practicing the wand movements, "Yeah, a blasting curse, I don't think he intended to cause so much damage, or if he even knew what was below the street, he's not that smart. It was just his luck that the explosion was powerful enough to do all that damage and allowed him to slip away after."

"Must have been all the gasses," My dad commented, "the explosion must have ignited the gasses in the sewers line below and caused it to be much larger, which makes it all the more impressive this Sirius fellow survived, so there might be some merit to that theory. Though I still don't like the thought of teaching such a dangerous spell to children so young. Even if they could survive it and can be easily patched up afterwards."

"Well to be fair, I don't think it's going to be powerful enough to do any real damage without some considerable practice" I hedged, getting more comfortable with the wand movements, sure that I was doing it right, "at worst students only just learning them could maybe give themselves a small cut, nothing worse than a scraped knee, it would probably take a lot of practice with the charm to do some serious damage."

"Then why are you wanting to learn it first then?" my mum asked, confused.

"Two reasons, first it's one of the few spells that I have information on that will actually be useful to me in the dungeons, and secondly because it has the potential to be dangerous when I'm more proficient at it" I said before turning my want out and down at the lake surface as I made the wand movements and as i did so spoke the incantation, "Diffindo!"

The next second I felt a sensation go down my arm to my wand before a single red spark shot from the end of my wand… only to fizzle out the very next second before making it to the water's surface.

I scowled at the lack of results before trying again, getting two sparks this time, making me scowl deeper as I realized this might prove to be trickier than I had originally thought.

Chapter word count: 1563